Chapter Summaries

Yu Ci realized his Primordial Spirit had been draining his energy while deducing Xin Yi’s Thirty-Six Heavens divine ability, then a black cat entered his auction box and revealed herself as Zhan Shuicheng. Zhan Shuicheng offered the group any auction treasure except the Nine Nether Prison, which her Senior Sister had lost.

• Yu Ci understood that his Primordial Spirit had been steadily consuming his energy as it worked toward a likely result, and he briefly regulated his breath.
• As the auction neared the Nine Nether Prison lot, a black cat suddenly entered Yu Ci’s private box through the curtains.
• The auctioneer unexpectedly called a fifteen-minute recess, leaving the auction hall and Yu Ci’s group confused.
• The black cat returned to Yu Ci’s table, ate a pastry, and asked Guan Zheng to bring her tea.
• Guan Zheng told Zhan Shuicheng that he had seen her spar with the Island Master at the Immortal Spring, and she recognized him as a junior of Ye Bin’s disciples.
• Zhan Shuicheng offered the group any auction treasure except the Nine Nether Prison, which her Senior Sister had lost.

Yu Ci and Gu Zhi watched as the Nine Nether Prison was withdrawn from the auction, though Yu Ci had never asked for it to be withdrawn. Zhan Shuicheng appeared at the auction and demanded to know who had taken her Great Senior Sister’s treasure, leaving Shen Wan to ask whether she would follow Fairy Yu’s wishes.

• Yu Ci realized Zhan Shuicheng seemed determined to obtain the Nine Nether Prison and prepared to act, as Gu Zhi also rose.
• The auctioneer announced that the Nine Nether Prison had been temporarily withdrawn at the consignor’s request, provoking angry protests from the bidders.
• Shen Wan defended Suixin Pavilion’s decision, explaining that the consignor could reclaim the treasure before the sale was concluded.
• Yu Ci was stunned that the withdrawal had been attributed to him, while Zhan Shuicheng suddenly vanished from his private room.
• Zhan Shuicheng appeared on the auction platform and demanded to know where the person who took her Great Senior Sister’s Nine Nether Prison was.
• Shen Wan argued that the matter should be settled reasonably and asked whether Zhan Shuicheng would heed Fairy Yu’s intentions.

Zhan Shuicheng confronted Suixin Pavilion over the withdrawn Nine Nether Prison, while Yu Ci tried to help Shen Wan resolve the dispute. Zhan Shuicheng discovered that Shen Wan had been manipulated by the Heart-Seizing Twin Demons, and Yu Ci realized someone had targeted him.

• Gu Zhi proposed that he, Guan Zheng, and Yu Ci use their connection to Zhan Shuicheng to help Shen Wan, but Zhan Shuicheng clawed Gu Zhi when he approached her.
• Gu Zhi explained that Zhan Shuicheng wanted Suixin Pavilion to identify the consignor, while the pavilion refused to compromise its reputation.
• Zhan Shuicheng searched the neighboring room and found the Nine Nether Prison in a square iron box, despite Shen Wan believing the consignor had taken it away.
• Zhan Shuicheng struck a Heart-Seizing Demon from Shen Wan and explained that the demons had manipulated her memories and perceptions.
• Zhan Shuicheng concluded that a crafty person had tricked the Nine Nether Prison out of their hands, while Yu Ci realized someone had set their sights on him.

Yu Ci and Guan Zheng left the auction with the Nine Nether Prison, only to learn that powerful ghost cultivators were pursuing them. As an attack struck their carriage, they realized the black cat beside them was Nine Lives, a phantom rather than Zhan Shuicheng herself.

• Yu Ci suspected Lu Suhua had been tracing Shen Wan and Lu Dun, and concluded that abandoning Lu Dun's identity had been wise.
• Zhan Shuicheng took the Nine Nether Prison from Suixin Pavilion, then ordered Gu Zhi to deliver it to Yuangguang Pavilion; Gu Zhi passed the box to Yu Ci instead.
• Yu Ci and Guan Zheng left the auction by shifting formation while Gu Zhi stayed behind to bid on their chosen Dharma artifacts.
• During the carriage ride, Yu Ci sensed that his Primordial Spirit's true nature was close to completion and that the Nine Nether Prison was connected to what remained.
• Zhan Shuicheng warned Yu Ci and Guan Zheng that two True Persons and four Earth Immortals were pursuing them, then left the carriage.
• Guan Zheng identified the sleeping black cat as Nine Lives, a Dark Radiance Phantom Cat; the driver was thrown from the carriage as a ghost cultivator threatened them.

Yu Ci and Guan Zheng escaped a surprise attack by four Yin Mountain Sect cultivators with help from Nine Lives and its Phantom Spirit Talisman. As Guan Zheng fought back under the talisman’s domain, Yu Ci’s divine light demanded that he capture the Reincarnation Tu Ling Demonic Light.

• Old Chi attacked Yu Ci and Guan Zheng with White Bone Soul Claws, but Nine Lives’s spiritual light helped Guan Zheng strike back and drive their carriage forward.
• She Mou used the Nine Springs Banner to trap the carriage in a vapor-filled space, while Old Chi and Gou Lao Jiu argued over the failed attack.
• Nine Lives manifested a white tiger whose roar shook She Mou and whose charge forced the ghost cultivators to scatter.
• Mo Xiao killed the two giant lizards and revealed the carriage, but Guan Zheng’s sword Qi drove him back as a large eagle carried the carriage onward.
• Yu Ci realized that Nine Lives’s talisman created a domain that disrupted Void Stepping cultivators and gave Guan Zheng an advantage.
• Yu Ci’s divine light dimmed and demanded that he capture the Reincarnation Tu Ling Demonic Light.

Yu Ci used his Purple Clay Smoke Pot and Guan Zheng’s sword attack to disrupt the ghost cultivators’ ambush and escape with the help of Zhan Shuicheng and the Nine Lives Phantom Spirit Talisman. Zhan Shuicheng revealed that another enemy had been watching from nearby, while Yu Ci saw a possible use for his teapot alongside the Nine Nether Prison.

• Yu Ci released smoke from his Purple Clay Smoke Pot, and Guan Zheng attacked Mo Xiao with his strongest sword move.
• The smoke confused Mo Xiao and weakened him, allowing Yu Ci’s teapot to collect and hurl him toward the carriage.
• She Mou tried to rescue Mo Xiao with the Nine Springs Banner and jade-green yin fire, but the carriage exploded and Yu Ci and Guan Zheng vanished under the talisman’s invisibility.
• Yu Ci reached for the black cat, and Zhan Shuicheng rebuked him before explaining that she had been testing another person who watched the fight and then fled.
• Zhan Shuicheng admired Yu Ci’s Purple Clay Smoke Pot, and Yu Ci considered pairing its soul-collecting ability with the Nine Nether Prison.

Yu Ci showed Zhan Shuicheng the Soul Scattering Nine-Hole Smoke Pot and negotiated for the Nine Nether Prison. She offered him a wager on her upcoming talisman match, leaving him committed to betting against Xin Yi.

• Yu Ci revealed the Soul Scattering Nine-Hole Smoke Pot, which he had modified and used as Jiu Yan’s magical artifact.
• Zhan Shuicheng praised Yu Ci’s fight, and the remaining cultivators retreated as the smoke region vanished.
• Yu Ci asked to buy the Nine Nether Prison, and Zhan Shuicheng said she would give it to him if he won a wager.
• Zhan Shuicheng proposed that Yu Ci guess the winner of her talisman duel the next day, threatening to turn him into a rat if he guessed wrong.
• Yu Ci accepted the wager, then learned that Zhan Shuicheng’s opponent would be Xin Yi.

Yu Ci prepared for the duel between Zhan Shuicheng and Xin Yi while wrestling with the consequences of his Inner Void’s transformation. Gu Zhi delivered the Three Splendor Cauldron, and Yu Ci declared he would bet on Zhan Shuicheng, leaving the contest still ahead.

• Yu Ci found that opening his Inner Void felt dangerous while it underwent a critical transformation, so he endured the night without forcing it open.
• Yu Ci arrived early at Yuangguang Pavilion and waited with Zi Qu while Zhan Shuicheng continued sleeping.
• Gu Zhi brought Yu Ci the Three Splendor Cauldron, explaining how it could refine medicine, create a Five Poisons Smoke Barrier, and store and strengthen baleful energies or other powers.
• Zhan Shuicheng woke, recognized Gu Zhi, and kicked him out of the hall before asking Yu Ci whom he would bet on.
• Yu Ci chose Zhan Shuicheng, deciding that supporting her was safer than risking her displeasure.

Yu Ci accompanied Zhan Shuicheng into the Northern Wasteland, where she tested his sense of direction in a divine mountain woodland. Meanwhile, Gu Zhi spoke with Mister He about Evergreen Gate’s declining income and denied rumors that it planned to expand beyond the Northern Wasteland.

• Yu Ci recognized Zhan Shuicheng’s cat Nine Lives, and Zhan Shuicheng whisked him away from Yuangguang Pavilion.
• Zhan Shuicheng carried Yu Ci into a serene woodland formed within the Northern Wasteland’s black-sand storm and challenged him to find north.
• Yu Ci used his celestial reference to navigate the forest and reached a cloud bridge, earning Zhan Shuicheng’s praise.
• Gu Zhi met Mister He outside Yuangguang Pavilion and discussed Evergreen Gate’s recruitment and falling income.
• Gu Zhi firmly denied that Evergreen Gate planned to expand beyond the Northern Wasteland, and he and Mister He parted after exchanging pleasantries.

Yu Ci watched Zhan Shuicheng and Jiu Yan begin their talisman duel, using the purple light of the Nine Lives Phantom Spirit Talisman to reveal the hidden structure of the strange realm. He realized that the exposed region was a weak point in the circulation of qi dynamics.

• Yu Ci asked Zhan Shuicheng whether the realm was real or illusory, and she explained that Xin Yi’s Thirty-Six Heavens divine powers could make it either.
• Zhan Shuicheng left Yu Ci on a meditation mat atop a peak while she and Jiu Yan went to duel.
• From the cliff, Yu Ci watched Zhan Shuicheng’s purple talisman light spread across the distant void and make its hidden structure visible.
• Yu Ci recognized the revealed web of rays as the realm’s interconnected qi dynamics and primordial qi.
• After Zhan Shuicheng and Jiu Yan vanished into the void, Yu Ci concluded that they had entered a weak point in its qi circulation.

Yu Ci watched Zhan Shuicheng and Xin Yi’s contest through a water mirror, gathering fragments of insight before True Man Guangwei summoned him to the next round. The first round went to Zhan Shuicheng, and Yu Ci arrived in the Dragon Transformation Brahma Degree Heaven as she scratched Xin Yi awake.

• Yu Ci realized that fully analyzing the vast rune-fractal realm would exhaust his Innate Vital Energy, so he watched Zhan Shuicheng’s movements instead and collected scattered insights.
• As Zhan Shuicheng and the two black cats entered another void, its strange sounds startled Yu Ci, and the water mirror disappeared.
• True Man Guangwei invited Yu Ci onto a rainbow bridge, questioned him about his sect, and accepted his claim that he was an unaffiliated spirit.
• True Man Guangwei explained that Zhan Shuicheng had located Xin Yi’s true form, winning the first round, and brought Yu Ci to the Dragon Transformation Brahma Degree Heaven.
• Zhan Shuicheng pounced on Xin Yi and scratched his face, scolding him for fighting while injured, as Xin Yi insisted he could not wake up.

Xin Yi and Zhan Shuicheng played Go using Karmic Fire as the pieces, while Yu Ci watched and tried to understand their motives. After Zhan Shuicheng captured several of Xin Yi’s pieces, she challenged Yu Ci and ordered him to finish the game in Xin Yi’s place.

• Xin Yi chose Go as the contest and offered Yu Ci an immortal fruit, which eased his fatigue.
• Xin Yi and Zhan Shuicheng began playing with Karmic Fire and star-like white stones on a board carved into the table.
• Zhan Shuicheng captured several of Xin Yi’s Karmic Fire pieces and questioned whether he could keep up with her.
• Zhan Shuicheng invited Yu Ci to play, saying that competing against Xin Yi felt unfairly easy.
• Zhan Shuicheng climbed onto Yu Ci’s head and told him to sit down and finish the game with Xin Yi.

Yu Ci was made to play chess between Xin Yi and Zhan Shuicheng, serving as a buffer for their dangerous powers while they used the game to declare their positions. Xin Yi won and swept away the Karmic Fire, but the scene vanished into a black sandstorm as Zhan Shuicheng accused him of abandoning the battle.

• Yu Ci used starlit white stones to suppress the Karmic Fire and played chess by copying Xin Yi’s moves beside him.
• Zhan Shuicheng noted that Yu Ci’s qi channels adapted well to the palace’s sealing methods.
• As Xin Yi captured Yu Ci’s stones, Yu Ci endured the clashing qi of Xin Yi and Zhan Shuicheng, which the chessboard and Yu Ci helped buffer.
• Xin Yi defeated Yu Ci, and Yu Ci realized the game had declared the positions of Mount Bajing and Ruizhu Palace toward the Karmic Fire.
• Xin Yi swept away the Karmic Fire and departed as a black sandstorm swallowed the scenery, prompting Zhan Shuicheng to accuse him of deserting before the battle.

Yu Ci studied the Nine Nether Prison and waited for his Primordial Spirit's deduction to resume. Through the demonic seed's residual spirit, he discovered that Xin Yi's sealed Yellow Springs Secret Mansion had become a vast Karmic Fire realm filled with Hell Beings, suggesting it could turn into a miniature Hell Path.

• Yu Ci returned to his cave dwelling, gave Gu Zhi refined Infant Tongue Incense for Su Yu, and began studying the Nine Nether Prison in seclusion.
• Yu Ci learned that his Primordial Spirit had delayed its deduction to process new insights, so he joined in the ongoing cultivation and analysis.
• The Shadow Ghost and Five Peaks Origin Spirit returned after failing to find Lu Qing and reported that hundreds of cultivators had died trying to reach the sealed Yellow Springs Secret Mansion.
• Yu Ci used the demonic seed's residual spirit to examine the secret mansion and saw that Karmic Fire had spread across a radius of three hundred li.
• Yu Ci observed beings within the flames and guessed that the Karmic Fire had absorbed the mansion's tribulation victims and heavenly demons, forming a growing population of Hell Beings.

Yu Ci and Shadow Ghost weighed how to cross the Yellow Springs and reach each other without alerting Xin Yi, while Yu Ci studied the expanding Hell Path. They discovered a Solitary Hell forming in the Deathly Yin Desolate Cave, and Yu Ci recognized that its victim could remanifest within the Hell Path.

• Yu Ci studied the laws of the expanding Hell Path and noted details for reference before meeting Shadow Ghost across the Yellow Springs River.
• Little Five explained that the Yellow Springs and Yellow Dragon could be temporarily suppressed, but crossing would risk alerting Xin Yi and require facing the Nether Void Thunder Sword Array.
• Shadow Ghost proposed trapping Lu Suhua, but Yu Ci rejected the plan and favored a safer approach.
• Shadow Ghost spotted a person falling into the Deathly Yin Desolate Cave and hid with Little Five while Yu Ci watched through their shared perspective.
• A hideous ghost fused with the corpse and dragged it into a Solitary Hell, where the victim began groaning again.
• Shadow Ghost explained that a person trapped in the Solitary Hell could remanifest within the Hell Path, and Yu Ci told it to stand by.

Yu Ci entered a profound state of cultivation and used the Life and Death Talisman to open a miniature astral world within his mind. He declared himself heaven and began establishing a foundation for the world, while a disturbance in the sky caught the attention of a black cat in the Yuangguang Pavilion.

• Yu Ci’s essence, qi, and spirit converged as he entered deep stillness, and his magical artifacts detached from him.
• Yu Ci formed the Life and Death Talisman, whose explosive power opened the void and revealed the starry world he had constructed.
• Yu Ci rose above the miniature firmament, surveyed its stars, and declared himself heaven with everything beneath him as earth.
• Yu Ci’s Equality Bead and Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror sent a beam through the earth into the sky, where it burst into falling starlight.
• A black cat in the Yuangguang Pavilion noticed the astral disturbance, wondered if someone was masking heavenly secrets, and decided to sleep before contacting her senior sister.

Yu Ci used the Equality Bead and the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror to extend his divine-intent starlight across the human realm and open countless Inner Voids. As a new heaven formed between the stars and the human realm, Bai Lian approached Qiongqi amid the Northern Wastes’ turmoil.

• The creatures of the Northern Wastes sensed a disturbance and fled as a flying vessel passed through the storms.
• Yuan Haifei urged Bai Lian to investigate the disturbance, but she left the vessel and descended into the black storm.
• Bai Lian found Qiongqi and explained that a demonic sect’s domain was trying to corrupt the surrounding creatures, offering to help him recover.
• Yu Ci spread divine-intent starlight through the human realm, using its inhabitants’ perceptions to complete the Zhaoshen Map.
• Yu Ci used the starlight to open Inner Voids within countless targets, and their colored lights gathered into a new heaven beneath the stars.

Yu Ci tested his newly formed realm by drawing in cultivators, but Du Hushuan resisted being expelled and began devouring its contents. Yu Ci used the disruption to introduce a treasure seal into Chengqitian to suppress its shifting desires.

• Yu Ci expelled several cultivators whose true spirits entered his realm, then questioned the dying cultivator Xusheng, who begged for an opportunity.
• Du Hushuan arrived, protected his true spirit from Yu Ci’s attempt to dismiss him, and revealed himself as the mid-stage Void Stepping cultivator known as the Sky Swallowing Hound.
• Du Hushuan rejected Yu Ci’s explanation and began devouring the realm’s shifting images and turbid Qi.
• Yu Ci let Du Hushuan rampage as he prepared Chengqitian, the realm’s middle layer where his own cultivation foundation met the world manifested through the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror.
• Yu Ci called down a treasure seal and pressed it into the center of Chengqitian to restrain its unstable flows of desire.

Du Hu Shan tried to seize a powerful Dharma treasure but discovered his opponent had assembled a layered Void Stepping Domain that overwhelmed his projected true spirit. He escaped back to his body, only to be killed by a celestial voice that named him Cheng Qi and sent him to Tu Ling.

• Du Hu Shan saw the treasure seal suppress the Six Desires Turbid Stream and rushed toward it, hoping to defile it and steal the treasure.
• A dharma altar and ritual implements appeared, and a dragon-like beast placed a talisman bead at the altar's center, strengthening the surrounding spiritual formation.
• A giant turtle and a giant tiger manifested in the northern and western realms, adding further layers to the Void Stepping Domain and trapping Du Hu Shan's projected true spirit.
• Du Hu Shan abandoned his attempt to seize the treasure and pulled his true spirit back into his body when a celestial light threatened to shatter it.
• Du Hu Shan decided to investigate his mysterious opponent, but a voice declared him Cheng Qi and sent him to Tu Ling, killing him as dark green light burst from his face and apertures.

Yu Ci completed the basic four-layer framework of Chengqitian and subdued Du Hu Shan by trapping his soul in Tu Ling Prison. He then began inviting powerful presences to ascend their seats, while Old Daoist Xusheng watched in awe and terror.

• Yu Ci sent Du Hu Shan's soul into Tu Ling Prison and suppressed him with an imitation Void Stepping Domain.
• Yu Ci noted that the Equality Bead's ten-breath effect had ended and turned his attention from organizing Chengqitian to an unavoidable matter.
• Yu Ci manifested himself atop the vault of heaven and invited a pale-blue, shape-shifting flame to ascend its seat.
• Yu Ci invited a presence marked by an invisible sword-hum and ripples in the void to ascend its seat.
• Old Daoist Xusheng watched the manifestations and knelt under the sword pressure as Du Hu Shan cried out from below.
• Yu Ci invited another presence associated with black mist, filth, and demonic forms to ascend its seat.